What I Am

She's making light of philosophy and religion in this song. She thinks they demonstrate a pretense of depth, but in reality offer nothing of value to her. Thus, she expresses her contempt for them by trivializing them with metaphors of silly nonsense (philosophy is as insignificant as cereal box text; religion is as meaningless as a smile on a dog). She'd rather be choked than wade into the so-called deep waters of philosophy and religion.

She continues to poke at philosophy, which is deeply concerned with the question of being, by utilizing two tautologies ("I know what I know" and "Are you what you are?"). She also plays on the philosophical theme of being with her title "What I am."

In essence, she's saying "I am what I am" and that's as far as I want to go with all of this philisophical nonsense. She is taking an anti-philosophy and anti-religious stand in this song, poking fun at both, being content with her comparative shallowness.

Ahhhh! To EVERYONE who THINKS they are CERTAIN that the lyrics here are printed incorrectly, I am holding in my hands the official CD of Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. Inside the cover, which also appears to be handwritten on by Edie herself, the lyrics CLEARLY say "CHOKE me in the shallow water." Sorry, but just had to clear that up!! You are the wrong ones!!! So please stop acting all condescending about it when you haven't even done your homework.

Personally, I believe this song isn't suppose to have a meaning.

I've always liked this song. "What I am is what I am, are you what you are or what?" In other words, she doesn't pretend to be something she isn't.. It's also about keeping life simple, and uncomplicated, I think.

I thought this song was about Sexual Orientation hence the song chorus “what I am is what I am....“ not to make much of who the person is sexual identity don’t try to Rationalize or philosophy a person is who they are regardless of what you think. sexual identity it really none of your business but the person him/her self. “The Choke me in the shallow water” part of the song to me sounds like it could representation of the Naysayers who hates the persons identity hence the use a person god to kill their Non-conventional Sexual Orientation away from the world. More of a one sided world of Traditional thinking and values.

i can remeber being about 3 years old and listening to this in the car with my mom and giggling at the mention of a cereal box and a smiling dog. excellent.

Religion and philosophy are not the same. She's comparing the two. She describes religion in positive ways and philosophy in negative ways. "Religion is a light in the fog" is a line (among the others) that clearly describes religion positively. She's saying philosophy leads one astray while religion saves.

It seems to me that the irony here is that the song appears (from comments from the lyric writer) to be a sincere claim to want to keep things simple and to avoid deep thought, yet in keeping things simple it opens up all sorts of questions. When I heard the bit about being put in the shallow water, at first thought I thought it was supposed to be a criticism of people who like to imagine the world is simple and that the self is also simple. It seems all too easy to interpret this as being blissfully ignorant, which may be appealing, but hardly seems to be something to beat about.

The fact that she uses the tautology 'What I am is what I am', also suggests an awareness that there is far more to the self than there is at first glance, otherwise there might be something more meaningful that could be said about it. It could also be interpreted in all sorts of ways (identity politics come to mind).

Also, knowing that one is ignorant of so much, it seems unfortunate to them claim that the thoughts of those who do pay an interest offer nothing of more value than the words on a cereal box, except perhaps just to oneself. Ultimately, a song which sounds like it might be saying something seems in the end to be standing up for a dominant ideology I associate with the 80s - i.e. consume and don't worry about the consequences of your hedonistic lifestyle.

Musically - good song!

I've just added this song to a playlist I'm making called "Awake". That's because the "Choke me in the shallow waters, before I get too deep" line makes me think of the fear that I feel when trying to consider what the narratives in philosophy and religion are trying to get to...

At the same time "What I am is what I am / You what you are or what?" makes me think of of a Gen Z phrase I really like (I'm Gen X): "You do you" ("the kids" say it in a very chilled, accepting "different strokes for different folks" way).

Because I think it's both at once: Understanding what every person in the world is trying to understand and what each person knows within themselves. And that is overwhelming.

I then went to search what Edie herself had said about the lyrics. This is her in a 2011 Vanity Fair interview:

INT: Going back to your breakout hit, “What I Am,” did you write the lyrics to that?

EDIE: Yes. The lyrics came from my one elective in my first year in college, world religions. From the time I could first think, I wondered, What does the rest of the world think? I know what these Texas folks think [laughs], but what’s going on in the rest of the world? So I took this world religions class, and I was immediately annoyed at the chatter going on in the classroom. To adopt behaviors, to adopt some sort of dogma, I felt defeated the purpose of evolution. That song just blossomed from irritation.

INT: Did you feel like you were saying something controversial when you wrote, “Religion is the smile on a dog”?

EDIE: No, I didn’t mean to. I meant that in an endearing way, because what is more expressive and sweet than that smile on a dog? And I felt that in terms of religion, some people see it, some people don’t see it.

INT: What did you mean by “Choke me in the shallow water”?

EDIE: That’s the part that was irritating about the class. Everybody was getting so deep in terms of making things up—“Does this mean this and does that mean that?” I was just irritated, like, just kill me now before I get out there and lose myself and my sense of who I am.

INT: I’m going to have to listen to that again now.

EDIE: Yeah, I have no idea what I just said.

That lyric puzzled me in the 1980's until I heard her in an interview. She wasn't commenting on the song lyric but she was commenting that her personality was one that wasn't into thinking "deep" and wanted to keep things simple. I figure that lyric says just that...I'd rather die now than try to figure it all out. What I am is a simple saying...why figure it out?!